Tom`s travels: Zevio & Cologna Veneta (13/10/2023)

Coming back from Verona airport after having dropped Ania off, I decided to stop at a couple of places along the way. The first town was Zevio which I reached shortly after. I parked in the main square, Piazza Santa Toscana, and then headed to the Villa Sagramoso, nearby, also known as the castle. In fact, up until the 17th century, it was a fortified structure with a main keep tower and a moat surrounding it which still exists to this day. In the 1600s it was then turned into a palace and villa and modified and expanded to fit its new needs. Nowadays the structure holds the town hall and its offices and can be accessed up to its courtyard. Walking around the former castle's moat I reached the main church, dedicated to St Peter. It was originally built during the 12th century but then refurbished and rebuilt in the 16th century, before once again being rebuilt and getting its current neoclassical form in 1840. Only the bell tower still dates to that 16th-century reconstruction. Once I had walked around the area I got back in the car and drove forwards, stopping quickly to visit a nice church along the way, the church of Scardevara. It was built during the 12th century and still preserves the Romanesque facade and the apse from that period with nicely decorated capitals. The rest of the church was refurbished later, including the Gothic bell tower and the interior from the 17th and 18th centuries. After the brief stop, I drove on and reached the next town, Cologna Veneta. Having found parking along the main street I then walked on foot to reach the old town. I passed through the Torre Civica, originally one of the twelve towers of the wall circle that surrounded Cologna. Its current form dates to 1555 as the last surviving tower it was turned into the civic tower. After passing under it I walked around the old town with its narrow streets and old architecture. On its western side is the Duomo, built in 1827 in a Neoclassical style. It was strangely closed so I moved on, passing by its immense porticoed facade with the tall colonnade, and the tall detached bell tower. Close by I could see part of the surviving medieval walls that once fully encircled the city center. Walking back through the old town I then headed up to the northern end where the Palazzo Pretorio is located. Currently, the town hall is an early 20th-century neo-Gothic reconstruction that incorporates two of the towers of the ancient city walls. The interior is said to still retain the beautiful wooden ceiling from 1587, however I could not access it to see it. At that point, I was done visiting the town and I headed back to the car to eventually drive in the direction of home.